Do You Have a Girlfriend?
by AlexaNDYE
Summary: No one likes eating tuna sandwiches in silence, so Harley takes this opportunity to ask Tony something. [Mid-Iron Man 3]


"So, do you have a girlfriend?" Harley asked as he munched on his tuna sandwich.

Tony paused in between chews and glanced at him. "You read the newspaper." He said rather bluntly. "What does it say?"

"That you have a girlfriend…?" He said questionably.

"Yeah…" Tony dragged on, wiping the corner of his mouth. "If you already knew what the answer was, why did you ask me?"

Harley widened his eyes. He wasn't offended. He was more surprised at the lack of a people person he was. "Sorry." He apologized weakly. "I was just trying to make conversation, you know, something normal people do."

Tony shook his head. "Don't make conversation. Eat. I still need that spring you promised me— and I'm not normal. I'm special—I'm different."

Harley rolled his eyes before continuing to eat his tuna sandwich, but after a minute of silence, he decided to bring up the same subject. "Is she nice to you?"

Tony stopped eat to narrow his eyes at him. "Why do you want to know about her? What, you want to be her boyfriend, is that it?"

"Virginia." Harley remembered reading her name in the newspapers.

Tony thought he misheard. "What?"

"Her name."

Tony hadn't heard someone say her birth name in a while. She was always 'Pepper' to him. Just thinking about her made him smile.

"Why are you smiling?" Harley immediately noticed.

Tony's small smile turned into a flat expression. "It's a free country. I'll smile if I want to— and yes, her name is Virginia but she likes being called Pepper."

"Pepper." Harley remembered seeing something like that in the newspaper. "Like the spice?"

"Yeah, like the spice." Tony side glanced him and noticed less than half of his sandwich was eaten. It looked like he was eating slow on purpose. "Hurry up and eat. We have work to do."

"So, she's not nice to you?" Harley asked curiously, still trying to make conversation.

"No." Tony said rather sternly. "I never said she wasn't nice to me."

"Are you nice to her?"

Tony was becoming agitated. "Sometimes." He said bluntly.

"Does she know that you're alive?" Harley took another bite of his sandwich.

Tony realized, at this point, he wasn't going to be able to get out of the conversation topic that is his girlfriend. "I left her a message. I'm sure she got it."

"Do you miss her?" Harley asked innocently.

Tony stared at him for a second before staring up at the ceiling. He knew he and Pepper were under the same stars, but he wished she was there next to him. "Every minute." He wished the last few months weren't spent in his workshop, effectively ignoring her. She didn't deserve that from him.

"Do you wonder, sometimes, whether or not you deserve her?" His question made Tony's stomach churn.

"What do you mean by that?" He looked down at the kid.

"Well…" Harley took another bite and chewed. "… When my father left us, I always thought that maybe we didn't deserve him."

Tony knew that he didn't deserve Pepper. He knew that fact the moment she started working for him as his personal assistant. "It may seem like that sometimes, but sometimes it's the other way around." His tone was calming and sympathetic. "Maybe he didn't deserve you guys."

"Maybe…" Sadness filled Harley's voice.

"I don't deserve Pepper." Tony said abruptly, making Harley look up at him. "I know that. She knows that. But she still insists on sticking by my side."

"She sounds nice."

"Yeah…She's great." Tony said with a small smile. He didn't know he was smiling until he say Harley smile as well. "She's a lot more than what a man could ask for."

"The diner across the street has the best strawberry milk shakes. You should take her there sometime." Harley ate the last bit of his sandwich.

"She's allergic to strawberries." Tony said with certainty.

"Oh." Harley sounded more sad than surprised.

"Yeah, I found that out the hard way." Tony looked over at him and noticed the absence of his sandwich. He got up from his spot and put down a few bucks. "C'mon, you promised me a spring."

Harley ignored his last statement and shuffled out of the booth. "Do you think I could meet her sometime?"

Tony narrowed his eyes at him. "Why do you want to meet her? Are you planning on stealing her from me, huh?"

"No, I just—" Harley tried to defend himself, even though he knew he was joking.

"Well, you can't. She's mine. And don't think your lame puppy eyes will win her over. Trust me, I've tried."

"Well—" Harley got interjected again.

"No more questions about her." Tony said sternly. "The more time I'm without my spring, the more irritated I'm going to get." He ushered Harley out of the place.

Harley rolled his eyes and mumbled, "How does she even put up with you…"

Tony glared at him. "Excuse me?"

"Nothing." He said quickly, walking out of the place, taking out a rusty spring from his pocket.


End file.
